I Asked For A Dictionary In Prison. It Changed The Course Of My Life.

The author, Ric Renton, appears in Waiting For The Out on BBC iPlayer.

“Boss? Boss… can I get a dictionary instead?” I shouted, sat on the floor in the corner of my pad in the ‘hole’ (a cell in solitary confinement).

Having just fucked off, on my command, after offering me a bible, the benevolent screw returned: “Y’takin the piss?”

“No,” I replied.

Several hours later, the food hatch opens and a dictionary comes skidding unceremoniously across the floor.

Solitary’s a grim place...